Tennis
Medvedev’s scandalous prank in the US Open match. Boldly responded to the provocation
Daniil Medvedev / Photo: © Steven Ryan / Stringer / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru
The judge couldn’t do anything.
Tennis player Daniil Medvedev has always been famous for his extremely emotional behavior on the court. However, the failure of the Russian in the US Open match struck the entire tennis community. Our player lost his nerve, and he went all out. Dana will remember this trick for a very long time.
Veteran in rivals
In 2019, Medvedev’s career went uphill by leaps and bounds. Back in January, Daniil was closer to the end of the second ten of the ATP rankings, but before the US Open, the Russian climbed to fifth place.
The 23-year-old athlete was deservedly ranked among the favorites of the US Open. The first two matches in the tournament went pretty easy for Medvedev. Prajnesh Gunneswaran and Hugo Delien were not the level of rivals to compete with Daniil.
In the third round, our player got 37-year-old Feliciano Lopez. No one could have imagined that the Russian would have problems with this opponent. The best years of the Spaniard were far behind, and at the peak of his career, he never achieved serious success in the Grand Slam tournaments in singles.
Unsportsmanlike conduct
Nevertheless, Feliciano from the very first games made it clear that the Russians should not expect an easy walk from the match. The frenzied support of the stands helped the Spaniard show the best game in recent times. The veteran, due to his character, gnawed glasses, which turned on the audience even more.
Medvedev was not so actively supported. Many spectators even booed our tennis player. Daniil has always been famous for his unrestrained behavior, and the match with Lopez was no exception.
In the eighth game, the Russian allowed the opponent to make a break. The stands again met this with loud applause. Danya could not restrain himself and roughly pulled the towel out of the ball boy’s hands, throwing it on the floor. Then he threw out his racket.
The judge issued a reprimand to Medvedev for unsportsmanlike behavior, but it did not cool the ardor of the excited Russian. He approached the referee and spoke rather rudely to him. At that moment, Medvedev finally turned into an anti-hero for the audience. Now the audience greeted with loud applause almost every unsuccessful action of the Russian.
In the eleventh game, Lopez won a beautiful rally and again got a standing ovation. Danya seethed inside from what was happening. Vividly express emotions prevented warning. Therefore, he showed the middle finger to the stands with a hand that the referee could not see. To disguise Medvedev, he pressed her to his head, but the US Open operators filmed Daniil’s gesture. The episode was shown close-up on the screens of the court. The referee also saw this on the replay, but could not do anything about it.
“I can’t punish you for what I saw on the screen. I should have seen it myself,” the referee said.
The most difficult set Medvedev still took. In the future, he behaved more calmly, keeping the remarks of the judge in his head. The match turned out to be very difficult. Lopez imposed a fight in almost every game, but the age difference helped Daniil win. Athletes spent almost three and a half hours on the court. For the age-old Spaniard, this was a sentence.
“Your energy helped me win”
After the game, Medvedev tried to make amends for the scandalous situation. He addressed the fans in the stands with his characteristic sense of humor.
“First of all, I can say thank you to all of you guys because your energy helped me win. If you weren’t here, I probably would have lost the match. I was so tired yesterday. I had convulsions and it was hard for me to play,” Medvedev said after the match.
The public was relentless. There was a dissatisfied rumble in the stands, and many especially offended spectators showed their middle fingers to the Russian player. The organizers of the US Open did not leave the episode without attention either. Daniil was deprived of nine thousand dollars for unsportsmanlike behavior.
A difficult match with Lopez only benefited Medvedev. He made it to the final, losing there to Rafael Nadal in a dramatic match.
Source: Sportbox
I am a sports journalist who has written for a number of Sportish. I have a background in journalism and have been writing since I was young. My main focus is sports news, but I also write about general news. I am currently working as an author at Sportish.